The Queen's presence in these places is the kind of glue that holds this far-flung kind of sphere together. She saw her role as infusing British values and culture with democratic values, she says. This was part of the reason Britain continued to be arguably a country with an outsized influence in the post-war period because it wasn't just a small set of islands off the northern coast of Europe.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth today will be one of the most extraordinary public spectacles of the last several decades in Britain, accompanied by an outpouring of sadness, reverence and respect.
But the end of the queen’s 70-year reign has also prompted long-delayed conversations about the future of the Commonwealth and of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.
Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for The New York Times.
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